Like #node.js, they have 1000-2000 users connected with probably the same level of engagement, so probably 98% idle which means it's effectively a chat room for about 15 people.
And each person needs to care enough about IRC (e.g. run a VPS) to receive pings or messages while they are away and to see the message history when they return.
Maybe IRC is "plenty popular" which apparently means popular enough to find someone willing to shoot the shit with you if you're in one of its largest channels. But that's a far cry from "IRC is everywhere".
I use IRC every day. I'm just not left scratching my head when I find out that yet another ecosystem chose Slack/Discord over IRC. It blew me away when I saw how active Elm's Slack was while #elm is dead. But that's pretty much how it is with every community I'm part of with a Slack channel.
Sometimes people here suggest "maybe IRC is just for developers", but you can't even format a code block on IRC. :)
And each person needs to care enough about IRC (e.g. run a VPS) to receive pings or messages while they are away and to see the message history when they return.
Maybe IRC is "plenty popular" which apparently means popular enough to find someone willing to shoot the shit with you if you're in one of its largest channels. But that's a far cry from "IRC is everywhere".
I use IRC every day. I'm just not left scratching my head when I find out that yet another ecosystem chose Slack/Discord over IRC. It blew me away when I saw how active Elm's Slack was while #elm is dead. But that's pretty much how it is with every community I'm part of with a Slack channel.
Sometimes people here suggest "maybe IRC is just for developers", but you can't even format a code block on IRC. :)